Prayer for Health

Requests about illness, a diagnosis, an operation, a recovery taking longer than anyone hoped. Some are for the person writing; many are for someone they love.

Post your request

Most people who come to this page are not ill themselves. They are sitting in a waiting room, or holding a phone, or standing in a kitchen at two in the morning having just been told something about a person they love. The illness is somebody else's and the fear is entirely their own.

There is a particular helplessness in this. You cannot take the tumour out. You cannot make the biopsy come back clean, or make your father eat, or make the ward call you back sooner. Prayer is often the first thing people reach for here, and they reach for it partly because it is the only thing left that they can actually do.

That is not a lesser reason to pray. Wanting to do something for someone, and having nothing else to offer, is one of the oldest reasons anyone has ever prayed at all.

How people pray about illness

Almost everyone starts by asking for the outcome: let it be benign, let the surgery go well, let her wake up. There is nothing wrong with asking plainly for what you want. Scripture is full of people doing exactly that, without softening it first.

What tends to change over a long illness is what else gets asked for alongside it. Prayers for a good result become prayers for one good hour, for the pain to be manageable this afternoon, for the nurse on tonight to be the kind one. This is not a retreat into asking for less. It is the prayer following the person through their actual day.

Many people also find they are praying for themselves without meaning to — for the patience to sit through another appointment, for the strength not to snap at the person they are caring for. That belongs here too. Carers get ill from carrying it, and a request that says so is not selfish.

Before an operation

Lord, tomorrow morning she goes in. I cannot be in that room and I cannot do any of it for her. Be with the people who can — steady their hands, keep them clear-headed, let nothing be missed. Keep her from fear while she waits. And keep me from imagining the worst all night. Amen.

While waiting for results

God, I have been holding my phone for three days. I do not know what the answer is and I have already lived through every version of it. Give me back the hours I still have. Let me be here, in this day, with the people in it, until there is something real to know. Amen.

For someone whose recovery is taking longer than anyone said

Father, everyone told us it would be quicker than this. He is tired of being ill and I am tired in a way I do not want to admit. Give him a little more strength than he had yesterday. Give me the patience not to make him feel like a burden. And if this is going to be long, teach us how to live in it rather than only waiting for it to end. Amen.

What helps besides praying

Write things down. In a long illness the details multiply — doses, names, what the consultant said on Tuesday — and nobody remembers them under stress. A notebook is worth more than it sounds.
Ask for the specific thing. People want to help and do not know how, so they say let me know if you need anything and then nothing happens. Ask for a lift on Thursday. Ask someone to sit with him for two hours so you can sleep.
Tell the medical team when you do not understand. They are moving fast and they forget that a word they use forty times a day is a word you have never heard. It is not rude to stop them.
If you are the one caring, book something in your own week that is not about the illness. It will feel indefensible. It is the thing that lets you keep going.

Questions people ask

Does praying for healing mean I lack faith in the doctors?: No. Christians have prayed alongside medicine for as long as both have existed, and the overwhelming majority of people praying on this page are also making sure the appointment gets kept. Asking God for something is not a statement that you have rejected the means in front of you.
Is it wrong to pray for a specific outcome?: It is not. Praying only in careful, hedged language is often a way of protecting yourself from disappointment rather than a sign of maturity. Ask for what you actually want. The prayers in scripture are blunt.
What do I pray when someone is not going to recover?: Most people move, without deciding to, from asking for a cure to asking for peace, for time that is still worth having, and for no more pain than is necessary. That is a real prayer, not a consolation prize. If you are here, the Grief & Loss hub may also be closer to where you are.
Can I post about somebody else's illness?: Yes, and most requests here are exactly that. Please leave out anything that identifies them beyond what they would be comfortable with — a first name or none at all is plenty. This is a public page, and their diagnosis is theirs to share.